This Wednesday RCFC will hear a special report from our City Manager, Darin Atteberry. Last November, the US Department of Commerce announced that the City of Fort Collins had been recognized with the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s highest presidential honor for performance excellence through innovation, improvement and visionary leadership. Since 1988, 106 organizations have earned the award named after Malcolm Baldrige, the 26th Secretary of Commerce. Congress created the award in 1987 to enhance the competitiveness and performance of U.S. businesses. Fort Collins was the only city to receive the award in 2017, and only the third city recognized in the award's history.

The award itself recognizes the long journey of continuous improvement organizations must go through to improve and maintain organizational performance. Fort Collins began applying for the Baldrige Award on the state level in 2011 and achieved the highest state level in 2014, allowing it to apply for the national Baldrige Award in 2015. City Manager Darin Atteberry will discuss:

Why Baldrige? If not Baldrige, then what? (Why did the city invest $200,000 in pursuing the award, what results have already been seen, and what might Fort Collins residents and visitors see in terms of a return on that investment?)

The Journey - a brief look at the timeline for what it takes to use Baldrige Excellence Framework and feedback to improve organizational performance.

What was improved/learned along the journey?

How winning the award affects the community of Fort Collins:

It is all about the customer- our residents and businesses

The business focus

The Volunteer focus

Leadership system and strategic alignment – City Council and Community input

Darin Atteberry is the Fort Collins City Manager, a position he has held since 2004. In that time, he has led the organization through a time of transformational change, from a "trust us" model of governing to one that is data-driven and performance-based. Prior to that, Darin served as the Fort Collins Assistant City Manager for more than 8 years. He attended Harvard University in 2000, completing the Senior Executive Program in State and Local Government. He received his Master of Science in Civil Engineering and Master of City Planning at Georgia Institute of Technology in 1991. In 1989, he received a Bachelor of Science from California Polytechnic State University.

Darin, his wife, Deborah, and their four children enjoy living in Fort Collins and are active in community and school activities. Darin is a former RCFC Member.

September 12, Yolanda Schlabach, Executive Director of Zoë Ministries, Inc. and member of the Human Trafficking Coordinating Council for Delaware started by stating that Delaware's program to address human trafficking is based on the program developed in Larimer County. Larimer County's programs are focused on reducing 'demand' through sting operations and helping victims via non-profits such as Free Our Girls and First Responder Response Initiatives. Schlabach also showed and read several news articles, showing the results of sting operations in Northern Colorado. According to Schlabach, all prostitution is human trafficking. She also noted that human trafficking happens in other industries such as agricultural workers, where migrant workers are legally imported, then kept in virtual slavery, charged exhorbitant fees and kept from returning home.

Focusing on the sexual aspect of human trafficking, she noted the pattern of recruitment, and the psychological and physical trauma experienced by the victims.

President Steve Laine announced the establishment of two new scholarships, funded by Ada Chen. The scholarships, named in honor of Ada's late husband, Dr. Yung Hai Chen, will provide yearly $3000 scholarships to CSU and $2000 scholarships to Front Range Community College. Both scholarships are funded for 5 years by a generous gift of $30,000 from Ada. Ada told an emotional story of coming to the USA and CSU, the many blessings she has received since, and recounted how much Yung Hai loved Rotary. Ada received a standing ovation for her comments. Thanks for your leadership and caring, Ada. Editor's Note: In a previous version of this story, Dr. Yung Hai Chen's name was misspelled. We apologize for the error.